Tag: exchange

Over the past couple of days we have been installing a NetAPP SAN storage solution. Its up and configured and ready for data. I am beginning to move data from our HP LeftHandnetwork storage. Our Microsoft Exchange database has filled its LUN on the HP and needs moving pronto.

While trying to run the Move Database Path from inside Exchange Management Console I ran into an error at about 9 minutes into the move.

I tried it again wondering if it was just a fluke. I tried it in powershell. No luck same error.

This install of Exchange and its database is not quite a year old and we had a size of 250 GB database. After searching through Microsoft;s Technet and Googling like a wild man, I came across others who had experienced the same problem. It turns out that this error is a feature of having to many transaction logs. Sure enough we had too many transaction logs.

There are three methods you can use to have Exchange clean up your unruly transaction logs.

1. You can copy everything manually and re-point. This seemed to be too much work and the internet reaction on success was mixed at best. Not a good solution in my opinion.

2. Do a backup using Microsoft Server Back Up Utility. It’s easy and straight forward but a tad time consuming.

or

3. Enable circular logging and remount the database. This was the option I took and it was quick and easy. It took less than 3 minutes and was successful. You must dismount and mount the database.

How to Enable Circular Logging Through Exchange Management Console (EMC)

Under Organization Configuration click on Mailbox;

Click on Database Management where you find Databases;

Take properties by right click and under meiantenance tab apply check of Enable circular logging.

Or

By Using PowerShell

Set-MailboxDatabase -CircularloggingEnabled:$true

Be sure to remember to re-disable it when done.

Set-MailboxDatabase -CircularloggingEnabled:$false

The Information Store must be restarted for either of these changes to take place!

Recently I had a user whose Out of Office Reply was stuck on. I hadn’t encountered this and a simple Google search and the fix was allegedly as simple as choosing start, run, Outlook .exe /cleanrules. This didn’t work so I did option 2 which was logging in to Online Web Access (A silly name that seems redundant) and turning off the auto responder. It was fixed in a snap… until it resurfaced a day later.

Another odd feature of this bug was the fact that you couldn’t turn on/off the auto responder nor edit the auto responder via Outlook.

We are a Microsoft Exchange 2010 shop with users that use Outlook 2007 or for the majority OWA. Don’t Judge! It’s just part of the joys of being a grossly underfunded IT department. It appears via more Googling that this is a common problem amongst users of Exchange 2010 and Outlook. There were a lot of web pages advertising they could fix my problem but the solutions were varied and many I didn’t feel comfortable using.

I pondered… Could I fix this using Powershell?

I bet I can. In simple terms, Microsofts Powershell is a powerful command line utility that allows a system administrator to use simple commands, script command etc and give full access to local and remote computers including COM and WMI features. Microsoft’s TechNet website has complete documentation of available commands.

The first command I ran was Get-MailboxAutoreplyConfiguration username

It shows the mailbox out of office responder, state enabled or disabled.

The next command I ran was Set-MailboxAutoreplyConfiguration username –AutoReplyState DISABLED

This command disables the auto responder.

I logged into Outlook and now I could edit and change the auto responder.